Something I alluded to before but since has been exposed to new light: A computer failure that hobbled border-screening systems at airports across the country last August occurred after Homeland Security officials deliberately held back a security patch that would have protected the sensitive computers from a virus [Zotob] then sweeping the internet, according to…

CHICAGO – Most schools’ emergency plans are outdated, especially against technologies like the Internet and cell phones, safety experts said Friday. Districts that don’t review and update plans for a terrorist attack or shooting rampage won’t be prepared when a crisis occurs, experts warned principals and superintendents at the National School Boards Association convention in…

Eric Haney has made much out of his time as a member of Delta Force, America’s clandestine counterterrorism outfit. Way too much, according to former Delta Force officers and operators, who say Haney has embellished his résumé and fabricated other parts of his military career on his way to becoming an acclaimed author and a…

Via AEI: Judge Posner weighs in on the state of IC reform. Some highlights: The fundamental cause of the ambitious reorganization of the intelligence community that we are living through is not, I believe, some deep flaws in the system as it existed on the eve of the 9/11 attacks. Rather, it is a deep…

When 22 Chinese nationals let themselves out of a cramped and smelly cargo container at the Port of Seattle last week, it ended their dangerous and costly two-week trip from Shanghai. But after a few minutes of freedom and fresh air, they were apprehended and are likely to be deported. There was no indication that…

Get ready to feel the burn . . .

Mr. Ricks is shocked, shocked, to find influence campaigns going on here: The U.S. military is conducting a propaganda campaign to magnify the role of the leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq, according to internal military documents and officers familiar with the program. The effort has raised his profile in a way that some military intelligence…

Captain Ed takes a little initiative (and a hit in the wallet) to drive the point home. IBD has the right spirit, but wrong on methodology. The gov’t lacks the resources and the motivation. There are fish that have yet to be fried. In essense the only people who care are the bloggers and “amateurs”…

Hat tip to John Robb Finally, a media outlet that doesn’t have a problem with amateurs exploiting captured material: BAGRAM, Afghanistan — No more than 200 yards from the main gate of the sprawling U.S. base here, stolen computer drives containing classified military assessments of enemy targets, names of corrupt Afghan officials and descriptions of…

“You know what Justice Black used to say? Flexibility is mush.” With that quip, Judge A. Raymond Randolph cut into the opening statement of the government’s lawyer, who was defending new workplace rules at the Department of Homeland Security. I’ll ask one more time: would someone who is in a HLS or other national security…